My roommate’s birthday was in April. She doesn’t love her birthday, which is understandable. In hopes of cheering her up about her birthday, I told her I would bake any cake she wanted. Her eyes lit up as she yelled, “Rum cake!” I laughed and said, “Ok, rum cake it is.”

I don’t like rum and had never made rum cake, so I immediately started searching cookbooks and various websites. While at work later that week, I was looking through Scott Conant’s book New Italian Cooking and came upon his Bittersweet Chocolate Truffle Cake. I stared at the picture thinking, yum, that looks good! While reading the recipe, I saw that it called for ¼ cup of rum, and I thought, well, it has rum in it; it’s rum cake!

I copied the page, and when I got home that night, I baked what would become the most delicious chocolate cake I’d ever had. When my roommate got home, I presented her with the cake and made her blow out a candle. We sat down on the couch and proceeded to eat the cake and sip glasses of a 2009 Brachetto d’Acqui Donne Dei Boschi. It was so delicious that we took almost two weeks to finish that cake.

I have since made Conant’s cake twice and have tried different toppings such as hazelnuts or puréed raspberries. It has always been a knockout. Whether you’re looking for something to make for a special occasion dessert or you’re just craving chocolate, this cake will not let you down.